If you are agoraphobic, there's a 40% chance you had near relatives who were phobic. You may have suffered early abuse. In addition, there may have been a lot of instability in your home, such as repeated moves or foster care. You have had the usual childhood phobias - snakes, darkness, lightning - and they cleared up by themselves.  You may have had your first panic as part of a school phobia.

Your phobia most likely started with a panic attack about age 23, as if "out of the blue". After a while you saw that only certain situations brought it on, those in which you were trapped in some way. Just before the first attack, you were likely to have been under unusual stress, responsibility, or loss of security. Then you soon started to avoid those panic situations and to worry and dread going back to them. Very soon you began multiple consultations with several physicians to check out your alarming symptoms, which shifted from year to year. By the end of the first year you were already avoiding crowds, stores, transportation, and closed in spaces. There was a 10% chance you became housebound.

After 8 to 10 years of mostly misdirected treatment, you found that periods of panic would be followed by 1 or 2 years of some relief, only to return stronger than before. Because you still didn't know your condition, you began to feel a bit alien and became good at hiding you condition. You slowly began to give up on friendships, social life, travel, work ambition and other life plans. If male, you began a period of heavier drinking, as a way of self-medication. A kind of chronic, low grade depression set in along with lowered expectations in life. You started to get resigned to your prison.

After 20 or more years of having agoraphobia, you found you could get by in safe areas or with a safe friend, but your life became narrow and limited. You became very dependent on your partner to travel. In fact, your relationship got strained as your partner felt increasingly helpless and distant. There was less sexual desire. There was a good chance you had some loss of your work role and impaired work performance. Amazingly, you have not learned what to call your condition. It has become a way of life, the way your life has turned out.

Panic attacks are associated with some personality disorders but is not essential to their diagnosis. The avoidant personality is very shy, sees rejection everywhere, and shrinks from people. The obsessive-compulsive person is perfectionist and has excessive needs to control. The borderline personality is disorganized, quite vulnerable emotionally, and has stormy relations. 

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